Strain gauges are used in a wide variety of applications to measure strains experienced in a given component. For example, strain gauges have been connected to drilling components to monitor strains experienced by the drilling system during wellbore drilling applications. The strains may be due to pressure within the drilling system, e.g. due to pressure of the drilling mud delivered along the drilling system. In certain drilling applications, strain gauges have been mounted in a volume of oil, however the design of existing oil volume systems can create detrimental effects with respect to maintaining accuracy of the strain gauges.
In some systems utilizing oil to surround the strain gauge, attempts have been made to compensate for oil volume changes under pressure. However, existing systems do not enhance the measurement accuracy of the strain gages. For example, some designs employ spring-loaded, oil compensation pistons in which a spring-loaded piston is designed to move in a manner which compensates for oil volume changes. When the piston moves, however, the spring force acting on the piston creates a differential pressure in the volume of oil which causes the strain gauges to measure strain caused by pressure which is different than the actual the pressure of interest, e.g. the pressure of drilling mud flowing along the drilling system.